1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to a system for providing persons located at a plurality of individual stations with perceptible programs, the persons at each station being capable of selecting, from a plurality of programs and types of program devices available at a remote source, programs to be received and reproduced at the stations by manipulating a control pad or similar mechanism, and, deals more particularly, with a centralized entertainment system for the economical distribution of entertainment programs throughout several rooms in a dwelling, hotel, school, or other building, in which a station control pad is located in each room for controlling a desired entertainment program in the room by a user entering commands through the station control pads to the system.
2. Description of the Related Art
A system embodying this invention has use in many situations, ranging from a dwelling to a school language laboratory where a number of users from a plurality of different stations may selectively access different programs from a number of pre-set or randomly accessible user selected program sources or channels.
While there have been other centralized systems for providing selected programs to specified stations, none have enabled a user to select desired programs utilizing a microprocessor control unit operable in accordance with a pre-set set of instructions to permit the user's particular station to choose its program within specific limitations, such as, timer elements for daily or single listening, volume levels for a particular station, and sharing or restriction arrangements among specified stations.